Look Who's Talking

I picked up a book on language development at the library the other day. My plan was to get a basic month-by-month toddler guide, but the book they had was 10 years old and flipping through it I decided it wasn't really going to be all that helpful. In the process, I stumbled across a book called "Beyond Baby Talk," and because I've decided that Sawyer communicating is the key to surviving Baby #2, I checked it out.

With the hopes of jump-starting the talking, I have been obsessively naming everything in sight in the last four or five months. Book. Cup. Spoon. Banana. Chair. To my dismay, Sawyer hasn't picked up any of these words.

His communication skills are improving, however. He understands: Go get the book. Where's the duck? Do you want a banana? But, he doesn't repeat Book. Duck. Banana. And, if I'm laying on the couch he'll grab my finger and start pulling, saying "up, up, up." Or he'll bring me his shoes and then walk to the door waving his hand and saying, "bye-bye." Or he'll ask "What's That?"or "Where's Dada?" And, bless his heart, he says "Thank you" when he hands you a piece of trash he's picked up off the floor.

The other thing - one that kinda drives me nuts - is that one of his first words (referring to the dogs) was dada. or maybe he's saying dagdag, it doesn't sound exactly like Da-da but it's hard to tell. He is clearly referring to our dogs or pictures of dogs, not his dad. I constantly correct him: No, Sawyer, that's not dada its doggie. He just stares at me blankly like: "no duh, mom. that's what I said: 'dada.'

Come to find out, Sawyer is not a "noun-lover," he's a "noun-leaver." Apparently it all has to do with style and while the noun-lover may have more vocabulary early on, the differences will disappear over time.

The book's metaphor is that on one end you have the analytical-type person who reads trade magazines and does price comparisons before shopping. These are the noun-lover types who like to label people and objects in their environment. Ball. Shoe. Girl. Foot. Car.

On the other end, you have the risk-takers, and I quote: "They're the ones who can be found bungee jumping, riding dirt bikes, snowboarding or engaging in other types of extreme experiences." Hmmmmm!!!! These babies are about actions and interactions and while they will use nouns, they are more likely to use other kinds of words, like 'bye-bye,' 'all done' and 'again' quite frequently.

Apparently the key to language development is to match baby's style (if they lean more one way or the other), which I have not been doing. I've been forcing my style of naming everything in sight. Boat. Flower. House. Door. DOGGIE, while he's been looking at the firetruck book saying "woohoo-woohoo," or hiding behind his hands and saying "pee-ha-hoo."

Point being, I'm not going to get anywhere with Sawyer by flipping flash cards (which I was seriously considering) and naming body parts. And, I'm wasting my breath demanding accuracy with the dada-doggie thing.

I'm better off teaching him animal sound "the cow says moo," and knowing that when he points at the trees and says "what's that," and I tell him, he's storing the information away somewhere but he's not likely to repeat it back to me anytime soon. And maybe its not even the trees he cares about. Maybe it's the wind.